Physical button

Everyone can push a button right? We are connecting the physical button to ITRP.

Well, but what could be a purposeful function?

An Example

One example is printer maintenance. Some companies outsource printer maintenance completely i.e. the vendor is changing, maintaining everything except adding paper. Right now, without the button a toner change request could work like that:

User goes to the printer

Printer is low on toner

User contacts the Service Desk

User uses another printer

Service Desk looks for the Printer Serial No.

Service Desk calls the printer company or writes an email

With the button it will work like that:

User goes to the printer

Printer is low on toner

User pushes the button

A Service Request in ITRP will be created automatically and an email including Serial No. etc. goes to the printer company, of course automatically

Result:

Time and nerves saved for Service Desk staff.

Other Examples

There are many other examples for using such a button. The spectrum goes from ordering Pizza, creating a request because the vending machine run out of coffee to automate orders of spare parts.

k.konwalin@techwork.at

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The CMDB (Configuration Management Data Base) in ITRP can not only be used for ITIL’s definition of a CMDB but also to provide configuration parameters for automator packages. That way you can specify the specifics of your automations in ITRP.

Business case

Especially service forms add major capabilities to ITRP’s Self Service. Recently I released the Service forms blog post. There the automator provides a simple wizard and saves the customer entries in the request module and provides a couple of other automations like adding the person if the person can not be found in the people module and so on.

Kanban itself is not a full project management method – it is more of an idea of how projects could be managed by the team itself.

IT people appreciate that they can respond to changes quickly, that they can easily iterate and that they select what to do, so it gives them more autonomy.

On the other hand, a flexible system like Kanban can make it difficult to focus and push a project to completion if not careful enough. There is less set in stone, and no process to make sure the project is continuing smoothly – so it easily happens that a project loses direction.

Combine traditional project management with agile

To have more control over projects it might be a good idea to combine traditional project management with agile.

That way the business or business representatives in IT control the input and output factors of the agile development and can make sure to not loosing direction.

IT people can work with their Kanban system and appreciate the flexibility.

Conclusion

Agile alone might not be enough. Traditional alone might not work either, because IT people work not at their best if too much control is enforced. So combining both, might be worth a try.

NOT implemented
-) Use of classes, and therefore no use of the “new” keyword
-) Asynchronos calls or use of functions – all is handled synchrone
-) continue is not allowed in loops
-) All elements that are not listed above

Conclusion

Every JavaScript developer is now able to develop automation packages within the automator framework. Workflow automation is now easier than ever.